Taxes & Parent-Teacher Conferences

I started working on our taxes this week after much procrastinating, which yielded an unpleasant surprise. Our federal tax bill looks to be about double what it was the past couple of years. Not really sure why, we did have more income but not so much more that I thought it would be a particularly big deal. Not sure if some tax rules may have changed, or what. I think we are going to take it to a professional this time for a second opinion (although we better do that soon as we do not have much time left!) In the meantime I am filling out a new W-4 with extra withholding, for next year. A LOT of extra withholding, which is not going to be pleasant to get used to :( But... probably not as unpleasant as owing 10k in taxes.... right....

We also met with Ben's homeroom teacher and his math teacher. To backtrack a little, on Tuesday we met with the therapist who has been helping us deal with Becca's behavior issues (wetting her pants, general hyperactivity/overstimulation/anxiety that she seems to have). Becca has been doing MUCH better and has completely stopped wetting since we started the behavioral therapy. Some testing puts her in the sort of "wait and see" category for ADHD, the therapist not wanting to diagnose someone so young. But her schoolwork is fine right now and her teacher seems to be able to redirect her attention okay at school for now. But while we were wrapping up with the therapist and telling her we would not be back for another visit unless something came up, we got on the subject of Ben's school issues.She handed us a sheet of paper with a list of ADD symptoms, and every single one of them sounded like Ben. So Joel and I decided we would not mention this to his teachers and just let them tell us what they thought.

So we arrived at the conferences yesterday, which were back-to-back, and both Ben's teachers brought up ADD on their own and both said they thought Ben behaved exactly like a kid with ADD. His homeroom teacher even said he reminds her exactly of her own son, who was just diagnosed with ADD recently as well. We were shocked to find out from his math teacher that he is not staying in his seat during class, he is getting up and moving around, and seems totally incapable of concentrating/paying attention although she was quick to say that it doesn't seem malicious at all, or like he doesn't care, just that he can't.

So we came home and scheduled an intake appointment for an ADD evaluation for him, which is a long process that involves two parent sessions and probably four sessions of testing with Ben, so it will be a while before we have any results.